This weekend and the first merciful three days of the week have been Chuseok - the Korean high holiday and somewhat akin to American Thanksgiving. In other words, the Koreans thank an unspecified deity for the harvest and celebrate by eating special foods like rice cake, gathering together at the home of their parents or grandparents and bowing to the ancestors. The Korean kids say its pretty boring for them, but its a few days off school, so who's complaining?
Having no ancestors or relatives anywhere in Korea, I decided to join Martie, Tina and Cor (the Van De Wilt crew) and a couple of their South African friends: Sigrid, Gabi and Lebogang for an all-South African affair, no substitutes accepted.
On Saturday we travelled to Soraksan, the famous mountains right on the North Korean border. Despite our fears for crazy Korean vacation traffic, the trip only took about three and a half hours. We stopped in Sokcho, the last outpost before the wilderness, to buy some supplies and then headed for the Sorak Youth Hostel where we would be staying for three nights. The Hostel looks motel-ish and bland from the outside, but the traditional Korean rooms were very cosy and the location was unbeatable, mountains on every side and a river running so close to our room that you could fall asleep to the sound of it. We made our beds on Korean matresses on the ondol floors and had a quick communal nap.
Now one fantastic thing about being on vacation with a bunch of South Africans... is the food. Perhaps it comes from our church-bazaar culture, or from a long tradition of carrying supplies accross the mountains during the Groot Trek, but the Afrikaners can't simply get fast food from a Korean kimbap shop. We prepared meat, fish, salad, barbecued veggies, the works on the equipment from our self-catering room and on the BBQ outside the hostel. It was "chop en dop" time in the Korean mountains.
It soon became anextended sociable affair of making food together, listening to jokes and drinking red wine. (they now even have one brand of good-as-gold Stellenbosch red wine at a supermarket here..sheer bliss!), playing cards and just taking it easy as night set over the mountains. One of the best finds of the trip was cheap-cheap local prawns, which were pan fried to a beautiful pink.
The next morning we left the sanctuary of our hostel and went to where the action was - the Sorak National Park. Soraksan is a misty craggy mountain set just next to the coast and rising up from green hills. After a fair walk from our hostel through the area, we entered into the lush green forests..along with about 1000 other Koreans. To say that Soraksan is popular is an understatement. Everyone from geriatric ajumas in rediculous bright pink hiking suit to a toddler strapped to a weary mom's back was hiking through Soraksan.
We bought some mielies (corn) from an ajuma and went to look at the Buddha statue and temple in the park. Soraksan is a holy mountain to the Buddhists, so there are many temples, but my SA friends were a little templed out, so I didn't get to see as much as I otherwise would want to.
What we did get to see were spectacular views: we bought tickets to go on the cable car up to the Gwongeumseong Fortress, 700 meters up into the mountains. The short 5 minute cable car trip was dramatic and exciting. You get a whole new perspective on the park, with its tall, ancient forests, the temples lying below you, the wet hills around you and the sharp jagged peaks beckoning you to them.
Gwongeumseong Fortress was a refuge for King Gojong during the Goryeo dynasty (1254) or so the story goes. From the cable car we walked to the peak.. where piles of stones mark the Korean flag flying on the highest point. From the top there is a panoramic view of Sokcho and the East sea. When you get close to the edge of the cliff (as I love to do!) old Korean ajuma ladies yell at you to get back. Surely they don't want to lose too many foreigners to the misty mountains.
On Monday we decided to go to Kanseong, a Lonely Planet recommended beach/lake town even closer to the North Korea Demarcation Line. I spent a lovely day just relaxing on the white sand, playing in the water and reading my courtroom/murder mystery novel.
After another evening of chatting, mountain air and obscenely-named card games, it was time to pack up and come back. The journey home was less glamorous. It took double as long as it did to arrive, as we decided (unwisely) to head through Seoul, where 25% of Korea's population were trying to get home after their celebrations, all on the same highway. But we got home in one piece in the end, a little ragged, but happy for the break.
Of course we have only had a taste of Soraksan and I hope to go back there in the early winter, when it truly lives up to its name of "craggy snow mountains". But Korea is such an incredibly beautiful country hidden beneath a dirty urban veneer. I will try to remember that downtown Cheonan or central Seoul may be the economic heart of Korea, but its certainly not what makes this country breathe.
How good to be with my people again - to speak my language and remember who I am. Their humour, their stories, their perspectives, remind me that I am not as alone here as I sometimes feel I am. It was the best way I could possibly be refreshed.
How good to be with my people again - to speak my language and remember who I am. Their humour, their stories, their perspectives, remind me that I am not as alone here as I sometimes feel I am. It was the best way I could possibly be refreshed.
